Symposium at Yale School of Architecture To Ask Fundamental Questions about Sustainable Design

February 15, 2008

To celebrate the establishment of the Hines Endowed Fund for Advanced Sustainability in Architectural Design, Yale School of Architecture will host a major symposium on April 4–5 reexamining fundamental assumptions of sustainable design.

Titled “Sustainable Architecture, Today and Tomorrow: Reframing the Discourse,” the symposium will call upon experts and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines to take stock of the movement in sustainable architecture thus far and to explore new directions “designing green” might take.

Gerald D. Hines

The $5 million endowment was created by Gerald D. Hines, Founder and Chairman of Hines, an international real estate firm with landmark projects worldwide.Hines was the first Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architecture Fellow at the Yale School of Architecture. The School is a leader in the effort to fully integrate sustainable design and technology into the architectural curriculum.

Robert A. M. Stern, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, noted that, “This pivotal gift recognizes the shared goal of the Yale School of Architecture and the Hines company, a leader in global best practices and promoting sustainable development, to support research and instruction that will enable new graduates to expand the scope of their expertise and their influence as future leaders in the field of architecture.”

“Sustainable Architecture, Today and Tomorrow: Reframing the Discourse,” which is sponsored by Hines, marks the 20th anniversary of “Our Common Future,” the ground-breaking report of the UN-supported Brundtland Commission outlining an international plan to confront the world’s growing environmental crisis. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director-General of the World Health Organization, will deliver the keynote address, and participants will include some of the leading practitioners and innovators in the burgeoning field of sustainable design.

The Symposium will include presentations by prominent experts in non-architectural fields ranging from neurobiology to fluid mechanics to public health and public policy, with the shared goal of recasting our basic understanding of the built environment. For more information, visit the Sustainable Architecture, Today and Tomorrow symposium web site.

These initiatives of the School of Architecture reflect a University-wide effort outlined by Yale University President Richard C. Levin to take “a leadership role amongst higher education institutions to respond to the energy challenge.”

“We are pleased that Yale is hosting this important forum on building a more sustainable future. The University is strongly committed to reducing energy consumption and conserving non-renewable resources at every level of its operations,” said Levin.